International Government Studies (IGOV) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) cooperated with two foreign universities in this September as an attempt to create ‘Muda Mendunia’ students. Signing Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Mindanau State University (MSU) – Illiga Institute of Technology Philippines was conducted on Saturday (19/9) while MoA with Maejo University Thailand was on Friday (25/9).

Both MoAs were cooperation in human resource exchange for students and lecturers. “The cooperation is only for student exchange but also lecturer exchange that they will teach at the university, and vice versa. The other cooperation is regarding research collaboration, publication, and conference.

Moreover, UMY was the only university in Indonesia accepting student exchange of Mindanau State University. After signed MoA by DPA of MSU Dr. Sukarno, it was followed by a public lecturer discussing issues in Mindanau dealing with interfaith issues engaging Muslims. “A lot of Muslims in Mindanau are poor. They cannot pursue their study so that it is expected that an organization like Muhamadiyah can visit Mindanau to assist to enhance the quality of the Muslims,” he wished.

Additionally, the cooperation may encourage UMY to take roles in international level. “We are eager to expose that IGOV can go international. In fact, IGOV is the one and only Governmental Studies in Indonesia providing international program,” he informed. He inserted that this year IGOV will attempt to foster in ASEAN level, and may it broaden to East Asia such as Korea and Japan in the next year.